THE RED ONE
by LexieAnge
Summary: No children red or yellow haired have been born in over 500 years. This is a given fact. When the goddesses cry for 15 turns of the world a child with these features will be born, and rebuild the world. Is she good or evil?


**THE RED ONE**

**M. A. Knyght**

**CHAPTER ONE**

I ALWAYS KNEW THE WAY THAT I WOULD DIE. It would be at the hands of some overly zealot priest, who wanted to rid the world of the RED ONE. The lunatic would claim that he was doing the will of the goddesses. Here is a little secret that the priests don't want you to know. Daina, Goddess of Knowledge and War is really a redhead. Knowing this, any child that could possibly be born with red hair should be worshiped as the goddess reborn? That has been my very question since I was seven.

I am ranting. I should tell you kind reader something of my birth and the circumstances that has lead me to the story you are reading. Before my birth I am told that the city of Calana was a virtual utopia. The capital of the country of Arocana prospered while in the hands of the great King Dathon and his Queen Adrianna. The Sea family had ruled for thirteen generations after the Time of Pain. During the rule of Dathon and Adrianna, the poor were taken care of. The middle class enjoyed all the riches life could afford. And the wealthy paid for social programs that helped all three classes of people. Dathon and his queen ruled with one mind. They were, after all, bonded. The children they had were the pride of their life.

The bonding or bond is a divine way of finding the person that is a perfect match for you. It started when the goddesses came to the planet. Maiona, goddess of Life, created women first. Woman could create life just like she did. Daina seeing how perfect that was gave the women strength of body and of mind then gave them the wisdom to use it. Hundred of years went by when the goddesses so that the souls were getting weaker. The women just didn't want to live anymore. This brought Bleen, goddess of children and love. She saw the problem so created men. Men that would perfectly match the women Maiona had created.

That just lead to more problems. The man were always fighting over one woman while the other went lonely into the night. The men started a war. Hundreds of people were killed. This was called the Time of Pain. It angered the goddesses. Maiona wanted to scrap the whole idea. Daina wanted to get rid of the men. Bleen took it upon herself to make a soul link, the bonding, so that there would be a match so they would stop fighting. That ended the war with 4 mortals left alive..

Two men. Two women. One woman stood facing the men, sword in hand, as the other cried for the loss of her friends and family. One man slowed the storm that was coming while the other waited for the attack. Daina decided that these four would be her champions. Their souls would be forever intertwined. Maiona taking all the modifications that Bleen made created 50 men and women to populate the planet. The bondings went well. More and more children were being bore. No one died alone or lost.

When the High Princess said that she too was bonded the people rejoiced. The celebrations were things of legends. Nothing had been seen since. Nine months after the announcement of the bonding the world as they knew it ended. Insurgents for Stowera can to make trouble as the High Princess gave birth to a prophecy. While the white city danced in flames the High Princess gave life to a girl with red hair and boy with red eyes.. Upon seeing his children were demons the bonded to the heir left the room only to return with soldiers.

The girl child and the princess were gone that very night. No one would have suspected that the heir and her child were running through the chaotic streets. Many a woman did run in the streets holding their babies close to them. That night as the rebels unleashed unjustified fury on the people. Many thought that the High Princess had died in that burning hell. Some of the guards claimed the death of the princesses. Things have a way of working out.

Only the goddesses and the hight Princess know how the high princess managed to survive or how the monarchy could rebuild after that but she did and the city had been rebuilt. Though it was many years before the girl would see the place of her birth. The girl gained knowledge, found new homes, created a new life for herself. With always the threat of discovery looming. One such life was the village of Dorremi.

Dorremi was about an hour away from the capital. What safer place than the Knights of Daina's back yard. The closer my foster mother and I got to the capital the more knights there were. Mother never let me out of her sight. Until we got to Dorremi. There she sat me at the town fountain. From there I would have 3 exits should I need them. There was nothing different in this town. The sea city planning was all the same. A fountain in the center, crystal clean water pouring out of it. Surrounding it were the city hall and the three temples of the goddesses. People hurried about in their lazy way. As always I wondered if this could be home. Knowing full well that I couldn't never stay any where for long.

"Hello." This puffy cloaked teen male stood in front of me smiling like he knew me. I knew that we had never met. Some how the constant rain did nothing to the spiky hairstyle that he wore. The boy had the features of a man and a boy in his face though his eyes shone of memories past. Slightly dull but with some happy emotions in them. I shivered in my cloak. My heart beat fast in my core. There was something about him that made me want to jump in his arms.

"What can I do for you?" I said back in a not so friendly voice.

"Is this seat taken?" I gazed at the bench that circled the fountain. No one else was sitting so I thought that it was an odd question.

"No." Without hesitation the boy sat next to me keeping me in sight at all times. I now anxious for my foster mother to return searched the crowd for her. There was something worse coming from the direction my foster mother had gone. I turned my face away from the fighter priest. Trying not to draw attention to myself yet seeing just under the hem of the cloak that the priest was coming our way. "Knight Farther Talomi what brings you back this way?" The boy was all pleasantries while annoying it kept the priest not paying attention to me.

"I heard that the Marcaso family were ready to convert so I came to guild them. Who is your little friend Matix?" I knew that voice it was Tims Talomi, the youngest of the Talomi's that were knight but good at his job. He had personally converted or saved close to 200 families. I hated this man's idea of saving someone. Leaving people alive tied to trees by their limbs to see the moon of Daina rise was cruel since the moon never rose. The people would starve or to be eaten alive.

"You were not here. This is my girlfriend Daina." My heart flew high. Was this how you become lovers? One person just assumes that the other loves you. "She left before you came the first time." The boy turned to me. "But now she is back and I couldn't be happier." Our foreheads met, he was warm. He whispered, "Your welcome." I backed away slightly. "However my dear man I have not seen her in six months so I would like so face time with her if you know what I mean." Talomi smiled.

"I get it. Just one question." I chose to play along. What else was I going to do sit here scared out of my mind of a man that has never done anything to me?

"My father just died by the Red One's hands." I could see that Talomi was going to say something. The young man next to me squeezed my hand. "Do you mind giving me time with Matix?" The crusader started to leave as I put my head into Matix's shoulder.

"Do tell me when you are ready to talk about your loss." Talomi was given a look that could freeze the working fountain. "Excuse me."

"Daina Elizabeth Lyght what are you doing with that boy again?" Mom yelled from across the square. A woman that had the same face as Matix followed. "Did I not tell you that boys are forbidden?"

"Lady Lyght, Daina is my bonded." Matix stood between mother and me. I clung to his cloak not wanting anyone to see the red in my face.

"I don't care if the goddesses came down here right now and told me that this is something that would stop the rain. Daina is too young to be consorting with anyone male." We weren't quick enough to stop mother pulling me from him in the direction of the temple. "You are going to pray for your forgiveness then you are going to start unpacking. Tomorrow you start at the temple to be a priestess."

"Excuse me?" That was the final straw. Just because she hated men didn't meant that she should feel the need to put me in harms way. When the crusaders come that is always the first place that is "converted". "No, no, no. The only reason that I am even still with you is because I was told to. However if you are not going to be in this for my best interests then really I will find somewhere else to live." My hands hit mud but I was not in the mud. Matix was holding me. There was an awful taste of metal in my mouth..

"You know so little of your father. I may not be your mother but you will listen to me." She tried to pull my hooded hair. I heard wet flesh slapped together.

"You can go back to the apartment. I have a different place for Daina to live." Matix pulled me away from my mother. The woman blocked my view of her. "When you both cool down then we will talk about this like civilized people."

That was the last time that I would see her. In the middle of the night the town gates were opened. The guards said that a female rider speed off into the night. I was left alone for the first time in my life. I liked it. Matix's sister, Destiny got me a job. Yes the Destiny. The Destiny is in one woman in the world that had the gift to see the future. Though it was said that The Destiny worked for the High Princess. We knew better. Destiny had seen the fight in the square and had come to lessen the blow for me. In the future she saw I landed up with a broken wrist, exposed to the whole world. This was much better.

Matix was over everyday after work, which my apartment was right beside the blacksmith where he worked. Destiny worked just down the road in the general store. I was working waiting on people at the restaurant next to city hall. After a few months I was given a kitten. I didn't have an name for him until the end of the first week. The kitten attacked any button it could find so that is what his name became.

Then winter set in. Destiny was helping me plan the wedding that would take place that spring. All was going so well. I had a life, a cat, man that I never thought that I would be without and a sister. After 16 years the rain had even stopped. The following spring that earth began to harden and farmers praised the goddesses. I realized the sky was the same color as Matix's eyes. Daina's moon the same green gray as my own. More people began to travel. Work got busy which brought us more money for the wedding that was approaching that July. What else could I ask for?

As you can guess all was not to be. The night of our wedding, we danced with the village celebrating with us. I had never been free or happy or had a place that was really a home. Then the unimaginable happened. Talomi come to "convert" the whole town. Someone had told him that we were harboring The Red One. People screamed, my dress became red, and Talomi cut down Matix as Destiny pulled me away. We ran. We ran through the forest until we could get to a place where we thought that we could be safe. In that darkness no one was safe.

Destiny suddenly dropped us to the forest floor. Men in armor ran by us. When Destiny sighed. "We have to go back to Matix." I cried trying to stand.

"It's too late he is gone." Then she punched the ground. "I didn't see it." Destiny Turned to me. "Dorian betrayed you." Dorian was Matix's twin brother, some said by a different father. Matix is a brunette where Dorian had the blackest black hair and eyes one person could ever see. "That bastard told-" She gasped. "Run Daina. Don't look back. Never stop. Run south as far as you can." Destiny placed a coin pouch in my hands. "Go how hurry."

"Destiny?"

"Just run they can never get their hands on you." Using her other magic she pulled a sword from the ground. "I will destroy all who oppose the real heir to the thrown." Was the last thing I heard. I didn't run very far. Soldiers were everywhere. I hid in a bunch of lilac bushes as they passed. My heart was racing. My thoughts were just as fast. Dorian. I knew that he wasn't happy about the wedding but Matix reassured me that it was just jealously. Now Dorian was hurting the people that he loved most.

The scream got my attention. That was Destiny's. I was not going to let this happen. Throwing down the money I ran back to the town. I didn't care that everyone was getting hurt to save me. I only wanted to go back and save all I could kill all I could. I wanted my happy ending back. What I found will haunt me for all of my days.


End file.
